That Girl On My Beach
by jxnxyxxng
Summary: When you come back, you'll teach me how to fish.


The only thing I knew about that girl on my beach was that she was called Annie, and that she was eleven years old. Every morning when I came to fish with my dad, she would be sitting there on the sand, fiddling with little shells she found. I walked by her everyday but it seemed that she never noticed my presence. So I learned to not mind her presence that much either.

"She seems like a lovely girl, don't you think?" asked my dad. There was something nasty in his voice which I could not place, but he was wriggling his eyebrows, so I knew what he meant. We were in the middle of the water, a good many yards from the shore where the dark-haired girl sat. There were no fish.

"I don't know, dad. All she does is sit and stare at who knows what. Maybe she's wrong in the head," I reply. Scanning the waters, I find no signs of life except for the ripples made by the movement of my net. We have been here for the whole morning, and all I wanted to do was go home and have some steaming lunch.

"I know the Crestas, Finnick. They're a pair of friendly people. Annie's just shy. Maybe you should befriend her," suggested father, and I raised my eyebrow at him, like he always did at me whenever I did something _'_questionable'.

"Why bother, dad? She should be friends with other girls, not a fishmonger's son," I reply. He then gives me that raised-eyebrow look.

"Was that supposed to be an insult? It's because of us 'fishmongers' that District 4 has food on the table," he said with conviction. He stabbed the water with his spear, apparently seeing a fish that had passed my notice. He raised the spear and there were two herrings on its end. We put them in a bucket I was holding.

"As I was saying," he continued, "you best be making more friends, Finnick. I don't want you working too much with me and you should be able to have a social life somehow."

"What if I don't want a social life?" I answered.

"Trust me. You do," he says. I look toward the shore and find Annie Cresta watching us. Maybe she secretly wanted to learn how to fish, but need not to because as I was told, her family sold fishing tools for a living.

"Maybe I could teach her how to fish, for starters," I say slowly.

"That's a good idea."

* * *

><p>She was there again the next morning. On my beach. It was my beach because only my father and I fished here. All the fishermen and women thought that these waters were barren, but it turns out they were not. Yesterday and days before, I thought she was trespasser.<p>

I make my doubtful way towards the girl. As usual, she didn't notice that I had already sat beside her and was even observing her. Unsure, I uttered a 'hi, Annie Cresta'.

Annie looked at me then. Like almost all the residents of District 4, she had eyes the color of the sea. She had a pale face which was dotted with freckles across her cheeks. "You're the fishmonger's son," she replied. I resisted rolling my eyes. So many people buy my father's fish. I'm just his 'son'. "Finnick, was it?" she added softly. So she did know my name.

"That's right," I said. I extended my hand for her to shake, but she just stared at it and her face reddened, so I took it back awkwardly. "Uh, it's nice to meet you. Do you have any other friends?" I asked.

She shook her head. "I've tried before, but they all think I'm weird. No one comes over here except for you and your father, so I thought it would be a nice place to stay."

"Why do they think you're weird?" I ask. But honestly, I think she is sometimes.

She shrugged and it was quiet.

"How is it?" she asked.

"How is what?"

"Fishing."

I pause to think of a response. "Honestly... it's frustrating sometimes. The fish... it's seems like they're shy to come out. You have to act a certain way. You have to be quiet and pretend you're just there to swim around. So they'll trust you afterwards and approach you, then you can stab them. It's tedious," I explained.

She didn't say anything afterwards.

"Kind of like the Capitol and their Games, huh?" she says.

* * *

><p>That conversation was eight years ago. After she said that line, there was some sort of thick layer of quietness that covered us, which left me to think of what she said. She was right. That was only what I thought when I was thirteen. Then I was reaped the next year. That was when I thought we were no different.<p>

We were on the beach before Reaping Day. "When you come back, Finnick, you'll teach me how to fish," she said, as if my victory was already written in the stars above us. _When_. Not _if_.

When I came back, people were constantly patting me on the back, telling me I was a legend, that I survived, and even without all those sponsors I was still going to win. I allowed myself to take pride, but then Annie's words came into my head again and I went back to traumatic silence.

I guess Annie was the only one who could actually console me then. She would take my hand in hers and switch it to her right, then left, then back again. No talking. She was only twelve, but she sure knew a lot. Maybe it was all that thinking on the beach before that day I sat down with her. She wasn't weird at all. She was just more mature than the rest of the girls her age.

The Capitol took notice of me when I turned 15, and President Snow asked for a favor. He put it across as 'entertainment' for the Capitol citizens, and they all wanted to see more of me, with my 'good looks' and all. Basically I had become a celebrity of sorts. I agreed and it was the worst thing I have done. Men, women, the elderly; I served them all. It was... excruciating. President Snow told me that if I refuse to 'entertain' the citizens of the Capitol, he'd kill the people I loved.

I lived one day at a time. When I was 16, I helped in mentoring the tributes who were reaped. It killed me to see them die. They took slices to the body, and I'd frantically send them bandages, but they'd end up bleeding to death. They needed proper medicine, but we didn't have enough sponsors. One day, one of them was searching for food, clutching his side to keep the blood in. Then a tribute from another district cut his head off with an ax. I didn't know what to do. So I gave up mentoring after my first time.

"You know it's not your fault, Finnick," she said, doing her usual tossing-my-hand thing again. "It's the Capitol. Without these Games of theirs, we all wouldn't be so damaged." It was dusk, and before she left me, she kissed my mouth.

Three years later, the Reaping Day for the 70th Hunger Games came. Annie was seventeen then. She held my hand in a vice-like grip. "It's okay, they're not getting your slip from that bowl. The odds are in your favor, don't worry," I say over and over again to her. But she wasn't listening. She was staring at the woman standing on our Justice Building, greeting us with a sickly sweet 'Happy Hunger Games!'

"Well, let's get on with it, shall we? Ladies first!" said the woman with bright green hair. She inserted her hand in the bowl, looking at us with an anticipating smile while her fingers fished for a slip. Annie's hand squeezed mine and I felt the circulation in it cut.

The woman finally withdrew her hand from the bowl, a tiny, white slip of paper in between her fingers. She unrolled it, and announced the name. "Annie Cresta!"

I sucked in my breath. Annie looked at me, her mouth parted as if she wanted to say something. The grip on my hand had loosened, but she squeezed it once more and let go. She made her way up the stage.

That was the day I decided I should be a mentor again.

* * *

><p>I watched her too thin body navigate itself in the arena. She had a permanent wild look in her eyes after our male tribute's head was cut off by another tribute. Annie was... finding something. Certainly it wasn't food, since I sent her some to keep her stomach filled for at least a few days. She had a few loyal sponsors who liked her 'innocent-looking features' and her 'entrancing sea-green eyes', whatever.<p>

Whatever Annie was finding, she wasn't having any luck. Looking closely, her eyes were glassy with tears that wouldn't fall. Her lips were mouthing words. She crossed a stream and found a cavern whose entrance was covered with vines. She hurried and scrambled in, and she stayed there for the rest of the day, crying silently and eating the leftovers of the food I sent her.

Occasionally she would go out for brief periods of time to search for food and drink water from the stream. She didn't catch any fish from it because she would need fire to cook them. And fire meant announcing your location to everyone, which she of course did not want.

There were no deaths for the past few days. Annie spent most of her days sleeping, eating, drinking or staring into space, mouthing words faintly. Everything was quiet in the arena. Until the Gamemakers decided things were going too slow and people were getting bored and they decided start an earthquake. The arena was composed mostly of a large river that came from a dam. That dam broke and the arena flooded.

The water entered her little rock sanctuary. She rushed out of it and found the surrounding area completely in water, rising by the second. If she stepped off the short precipice, the water would cover her completely. _Swim, Annie. _

She stood there, staring at the water, which had already risen to her shins. She waited until it was up to her knees and dived in. The cameras that show her every move gave me an image of floating dead bodies in the water. I grit my teeth as Annie twitched slightly while she swam by the still-dying bodies, but she continued to swim nonetheless. I had my hands in fists as she swam to the surface to breathe. Cannons sounded. _One, two, three, four... _The hovercraft was there, fishing dead bodies from the water.

"Your girl?" asked Haymitch Abernathy, mentor of of the District 12 tributes. His tributes died before the flood, and he had been drinking since. I nod. "She's a keeper, that one."

I flushed, and went back to the screen. Annie's head bobbed on the surface of the water as she looked around as cannons sounded. Her eyes were wide with shock as she was pulled back into the water. I suck in a breath, hoping the knife I gave her was still with her. A tribute from District 6 had a strong hold on her leg, and Annie tried to shake him off. She was reaching for something on her belt. The knife.

The District 6 mentor smiled toothily at me. His male tribute decided he could drown Annie by covering her mouth and nose and practically her whole face with his enormous hands, and a sudden anger washed over me. I wasn't going to let some boy from 6 take her life. _Stab him, Annie._

As of now, she was frantically biting his fingers, making them bleed. His blood traveled through the water like food coloring. Annie had a shaky hold on her knife, and the tribute from 6 didn't notice this as he let go of her, bubbles coming out of his mouth as he cried in pain. Once he raised his head, she drove the knife into his chest. It stuck there, and Annie looked at him, eyes wide. A few minutes passed an another cannon sounded.

Claudius Templesmith announced a few words. But I didn't hear it. I managed to keep Annie alive. My Annie.

* * *

><p>We were back on the beach, and this time it wasn't just me who was traumatically damaged. Annie was back to when she was eleven, staring at the horizon. Her hand was in mine, but it was as if I wasn't there. After a while, she took her hand back and buried her face in her arms, and stayed like that until night fell.<p>

It was like this day after day. She'd be on the beach when I arrived, and then we'd both be staring at the horizon, her hand in mine, then she would take it back and curl up. She had shut herself off from the rest of us. She wasn't planning on killing anyone in the arena. But she had to.

"I didn't want to kill him, Finnick," she said one day. I was surprised she spoke. I was thinking maybe I had to talk first.

"I know."

"I had to. I had to come back. For my parents. For you."

She faced me, her eyes etched with dark circles and had permanently hinted with fear and worry. Other than that, they were still the same 'entrancing sea-green eyes'. I didn't know I'd fallen for Annie until Haymitch Abernathy told me she was keeper. Sometimes your eyes had to be opened by someone else, or you'd be blinded forever.

"You were going to teach me how to fish," she said.

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN: **_**I just love Finnick/Annie! They are perfect. I also loved Mainstay Pro's web series based on this pairing, so their videos gave me several ideas. I deleted the rest of my fics because they were crappy. But maybe in the future, I might rewrite them and make them better. :)**


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